Writing an Appeal Brief and Preparing an Excerpt of Record

In an appeal, both parties present their positions to the Supreme Court by preparing written arguments called appeal briefs. The appellant’s appeal briefs try to convince the Supreme Court to reverse the Superior Court decision. The appellant will argue each issue stated in the Statement of Points on Appeal. The appellee’s brief responds to the appellant’s arguments and tries to convince the Supreme Court to affirm the Superior Court decision. Both parties need to do legal research to support their arguments. Appellate Rule 212 requires that appeal briefs contain specific sections and use specific formatting.

Both parties also need to file an “excerpt of record” with their appeal brief. The excerpt of record should contain copies of all important documents from the Superior Court record that you cite to in the appeal briefs. The reason why the excerpt of record is required is to make it easy for the Supreme Court to find the relevant documents for the appeal. The Appellate Rules require that the excerpts of record follow specific formatting.

• Writing an appeal brief
  
• Preparing the excerpt of record
  
• Filing the appeal brief and excerpt of record

Rev. 16 March 2007 © Alaska Court System www.courts.alaska.gov Contact Us

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